Alumni Spotlight: Manuel Schulze and Torben Fischer

Happy Earth Day!

Some I-House alumni have taken the skills they learned at UC Berkeley to parts of the world where local communities are suffering due to the neglect of the environment. For this year’s Earth Day, I’d like to highlight two such alumni, Manuel Schulze (IH 2013-14) and Torben Fischer (IH 2013-14), who won a $10,000 cash grant from Davis Projects for Peace, a contest that supports grassroots projects around the world. Manuel and Torben envisioned a cleaner world when they started Recycle Up! Ghana in 2014.

I recently caught up with Manuel and Torben on Linkedin and I’m happy to report that their peace project has been a great success!

Manuel writes, “We currently run a Nationwide Education Campaign with about 50 schools in Ghana and two Start-Up Incubator programs. We also have our own Recycle Up! Hub / Makerspace in Kumasi since last year. More than 50% of the world’s plastic production in history has happened in the last 20 years — the scale of this problem is huge! It will take the effort of the whole society; the producers, the consumer, and the whole recycling industry! We from Recycle Up! Ghana are focused on empowering young people to create local solutions to the plastic waste problem — from raising awareness, building infrastructure to supporting passionate social entrepreneurs creating innovative businesses in the circular economy space!”

Torben adds, “It is heartening to realize how this initial funding has amplified an idea that has now grown into an independent Ghanaian organization — truly in line with our vision of empowering local youth.”

Bravo, Manuel and Torben!

Learn more about Recycle Up! Ghana at https://recycleupghana.org/ If you’d like to support them, visit their fundraising page.

Connect with Manuel and other alumni on I-House Berkeley Connect, our global community at ihberkeleyconnect.org

Do you know of I-House alumni who are doing great work around the world? Let us know by emailing ihalumni@berkeley.edu!